Bears QB Justin Fields’ poor play exacerbated by ancillary problems

This is becoming an ugly tradition.

Not only are the Bears getting poor quarterback play from Justin Fields, but everything they’re doing around him is exacerbating his struggles.

They’ve done this before, most recently with Mitch Trubisky. While he wasn’t good enough to justify being the top quarterback drafted in 2017, he also was hampered by ancillary malfunctions.

Fields’ best passing performance of the season — 11-for-22 for 174 yards and a 76.7 passer rating — still wasn’t very good Sunday and wasn’t enough to beat the Giants, who staggered to a 20-12 victory. Technically, it’s progress, but it’s a tiny step with no promise of a bigger one this week against the Vikings.

Everything is wrong right now.

Fields is missing open receivers, and there aren’t a slew of them anyway. The offensive line isn’t giving him much protection, but he’s not making the most of his time in the pocket when he does get it. Offensive coordinator Luke Getsy isn’t opening up a lot of opportunities for him as a passer, but Fields isn’t doing much to earn his confidence.

The result is Fields ranks last in completions (34), yardage (471) and passer rating (58.7). Perhaps most alarming, he’s at the bottom in completion percentage (50.7) despite playing in an offense that doesn’t take many deep shots.

Coach Matt Eberflus cited all the issues in a roundabout way the last two weeks and was back at it Monday.

He said the offensive line was “good in spots” in pass protection, which is a polite way of saying it was bad most of the time. He highlighted Giants nose tackle Dexter Lawrence having “a pretty good day” with eight pressures and two sacks as he bullied various interior linemen.

Amid that duress, Fields often didn’t seem to have a feel for moving away from the pressure and buying himself time to throw.

“It’s just pocket presence as he gets more experience,” Eberflus said. “He did a nice job of riding the pocket a couple of times, staying in there and delivering the ball, for sure.

“We talked about those plays. . . . More experience on the job, and he’s going to get better at it.”

Eberflus also mentioned a play in which Darnell Mooney ran the wrong route but got open anyway and said Fields needed to adjust and “take what they give you.”

By the way, when the most accomplished and sure-footed of the Bears’ wide receivers is making mental mistakes, they’re in real trouble. Mooney said Sunday that he got the play wrong twice against the Giants.

Pro Football Focus’ metrics show that the Bears have allowed pressure on the highest percentage of drop-backs and have had the lowest percentage of drop-backs in which receivers are considered open.

Pro Football Reference charts them allowing pressure on 29.3% of drop-backs and has Fields throwing on target only 43.9% of the time — second-worst in both categories.

The problems are circular, encompassing Fields, his targets and his line. And there are no obvious solutions.

The line took a hit with left guard Cody Whitehair’s knee injury. The only help coming at wide receiver will be from N’Keal Harry, who will return eventually but is hardly a sure thing.

The deflated numbers this season are tiresome, but the mess carries big-picture consequences, too.

It was paramount for general manager Ryan Poles to assess whether Fields could grow into a franchise quarterback. He’s not playing like one, but Poles didn’t build a roster to facilitate that development.

If it keeps going like this, the Bears face bad outcomes: They won’t be able to tell how good he is or they’ll decide to reboot at quarterback in the draft. Either scenario simply slows down what already feels like a crawling rebuild.